The Drift of the Past
by Hannah Lynn McDonald
Summary: Hermann and Giezler discuss the Drift. (AKA - Newton realises just WHAT sort of memories he got.) (Pacific Rim Crossover)


_c. 2225_

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He carefully lay back on the bed, relaxing as sore muscles stretched out. Either from the incredibly ill-advised drift or from trying to keep up with Dr. Giezler through unidentifiable organic remains – he was exhausted.

He sighed, folding his hands over his stomach and losing his eyes. It was insanity to have entered the Drift – especially with Giezler of all possible candidates. He studied the Kaiju because they were new and unknown – how much more so would be an impossible creature that was doomed to eternally return from any death? It would be a subject to attract the man until his death, for there was no explanation.

He could only say that newton reminded him of others in his past – of Lucas Wahl, or Maria, or Lupus. He reminded him of the unending chatter and curiosity of children; and yet, he still inspired trust. Perhaps as a younger man he would assume that the man's inability to be silent in work would be dangerous to his condition's secret, but time had taught him that sometimes the quietest were the most loose-lipped rather than the reverse.

He could hear the rain outside again, and his memories wandered back to walks in parks disrupted by sudden rainstorms. He smiled slightly, remembring how much Vanya abhorred rain – she would swim or play for hours in the snow, but she shied away from rain.

Remembering trying to take her for a walk, he almost missed the knock on the door; only opening his eyes when it sounded again.

He sighed, levering himself up and snatching up his cane as he stood. When he pulled open the door, he shook his head and slammed it shut again.

Giezler knocked on the door again. "You can't just leave it at that!"

He limped back to the bed, ignoring the man outside his door.

"You had to have seen that!" There was silence for a moment as he waited for an answer. "I will stay out here and knock until you let me in!"

He leaned against the wall, letting the knocking continue for several minuted until Giezler's hand tired and he switched. He sighed. "I saw what you saw – no more."

"Yeah – but are you a historian or something as well? I mean, numbers are boring sure – but history? And was it a time machine – was that it? I mean, it should just be memories in the drift; not facts..." The knocking trailed off and stopped as the biologist thought aloud, but it started again when he realised he had paused.

"Perhaps it was but the kaiju hive-mind having spied through the Rift."

"No way – its thoughts were a _lot_ different. Nope – those were your thoughts because they really weren't mine. Your memories? Oh man – are you a time traveler? A vampyre?"

He could hear the thoughts turning and tangling in the other man's head and he retraced his steps to the door, jerking it open. "If I were, I would have repurposed you long before this." He hesitated, fear getting better of his annoyance and logic for a moment before he stepped out of the doorway. The fear lingered, memories of betrayals and hard lessons pushing to the forfront of his mind; but he knew that even in the unlikely even that Giezler revealed his secret, it would be easy enough to discredit him or to disappear himself.

But another voice spoke up from behind the fear – reminding him that he didn't want another person close to him. Not now. Not ever. He was comfortable being alone and distant – he was at peace. Having someone – _this_ man – near him would only remind him of his fate. A barb every day cutting him open again and again – another painful memory that would be left in the past when he inevitably outlived the other.

Giezler pushed past him into the room, oblivious to the mathematician's reserve and glare directed at him as he looked around. "It's really empty in here – no chalkboards? Notes? Books? Wow...Not what I expected..."

He shut the door, gritting his teeth. Something about this man always caused him to want to strangle him. Not to death – just until the frustrating part of his brain died. However long that may be. "I am aware that the prospect of separating work and home is foreign to you; but to many, it is a statute of life." He strode forward to slap the biologist away from his bed. "There is a chair and you may use it until you are thoroughly decontaminated from whatever disaster you touched last."

Giezler sat down, watching him as he sank down onto the bed again.

He leaned the cane against the wall, pressing a hand against the cramp starting in his thigh as he pushed himself further back on the bed. "What?" He snapped.

"You haven't denied it – any of it." He frowned. "It's crazy! Time travel. Has to be. Did you build the machine? Steal it?" He htought about it for a moment and then decided: "Nah – you built it..."

He watched the biologist, knowing that he would sift through the shared memories until he came to the thing that disproved his time-travel theory: age. Age, experience, bitterness, sorrow – each increasing as time passed. He said that he denied none of it – but there was no point in denying something that the other literally experienced his memories of.

"But you eat food! And I've seen you in the sun! Always covered up, sure – do you have a special sun lotion or something?" He pointed at the bed Hermann sat on. "And that doesn't look like a coffin – is it a perception filter or something?"

He blinked and then sighed in exasperation, rubbing the cramp out. "Vampyres do not exist, Dr. Giezler – they are merely the work of overwrought, superstitious minds."

"Oh yeah? Then what are you?"

He considered again. He could claim to be a time-traveler. He could say that his machine was automatically recalled at set times, and he had missed the last one and so was stranded in this world and time. He could say any number of things – Newton would probably believe him if just because he was a scientist and it was more plausible than the truth at this point. But sooner or later, the biologist's curiosity would point out the errors of that claim, pulling evidence and incongruities from the shared memories, and Giezler would be back.

He could disappear himself, he had done it before and could easily do it again. He could also cause Dr. Giezler to disappear himself – goodness knows it would be easy enough with his habit of working in a biological hazard dump – and he had also done that before. But although his fear told him to destroy Giezler, and his past told him to destroy Hermann; he didn't want to do either. Not now.

"I am immortal."

It was worth the risk simple to see a completely _speechless_ Newton Giezler, and he smiled slightly at the thought of having done this sooner.

"...Immortal? But – no. You died." His eyes widened as he registered what he just said and what he remembered from his Drift Partner. His mouth opened, then shut; but no sound came out. He pointed at the mathematician, who gave no reply; merely watching. Gasping in air suddenly, he began talking again: "How does it work? Are you anemic after dying of exanguination? How do your function with ruptured or missing organs? Why aren't you locked up in a lab being experimented on? Do you age? Why are you immortal?"

He considered grabbing his can and hitting the man over the head until blessed silence reigned again, but he had always known that this was an inevitability since he volunteered to help the man with his insane experiment. "I do not know and you absolutely may _not_ test anything – you have the memories: it will have to suffice."

"...even if it could help defeat the kaiju?"

"Believe me when I say that it won't."

He sighed, slouching. "Fine. But what if I surprised you?" He straightened up. "What if you died in the Drift – would-"

"If you attempt to experiment upon me without my consent, you will greatly regret it – as will you if you reveal this to another, and I think I need not explain why."

He held up his hands in surrender, backing down from his vehement partner. "Alright! Alright – no non-consensual experimentation. Got it. But-"

"Absolutely not, Dr. Giezler." He pushed himself upright off the bed. "You have made yourself a nuisance enough tonight – get out and amuse yourself with stolen memories."

"I'm going! I'm going." He jumped up and backed away quickly as Hermann reached from his cane. "That cane really hurts you know – _I'm_ not immortal!"

"Thank God..."

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 _AN: So it's only taken me six months to finish this main crossover idea... *_ _sighs*_ _again, I've only seen the film once and so these are written entirely from memory._ _1-25-2015_


End file.
